1924, May 26 – JUAN CARLOS CATAN RECORDS FOR 1ST TIME

Juan Carlos was a young, promising student at the naval academy and his parents were very proud but in his heart he heard music and so in 1913 at the age of eighteen, he did a crazy thing, he left the academy and with his friend Luis Nunziata he went to Asuncion Paraguay to sing; they successfully debuted at the Cinema Career…it was the start of a long and successful career…two years later at the Hotel France in Buenos Aires he met Carlos Gardel for the first time; they would perform together to great acclaim later in Paris…in 1932 with the Julio De Caro Orchestra he would delight audiences in France and Italy with his singing…he premiered the first tango written by Enrique Santos Discepolo “Bizcochito” in 1924 in the play “La Porota”…his first recording was on May 26, 1924 with “Perjura” and “Tengo Celos” backed by the Agusto Berto Orchestra…he wrote the lyrics for some tangos which became famous in their instrumental versions like “El Monito”, “Buen Amigo”, “El Choclo”…his “Aquaforte”, which was a hit for Carlos Gardel and Agustin Magaldi, continues to be popular

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Juan Carlos Batan was born in Bahia Blanca, the city of Carlos Di Sarli…from an early age he demonstrated precocious musical ability but his father was adamant that he pursue a serious career…he became a “cantor nacional”, a national singer, which meant that he sang a variety of folk music from the plains of the province of Buenos Aires, cifras, estilos, zambas and tango…he recorded fifteen numbers in that genre…others who started as “Cantor Nacional” were Hugo De Carril, Ignacio Corsini, Charlo, Alberto Gomez, Carlos Gardel…eventually tango overtook them in popularity…he traveled to Europe and Egypt with the Julio De Caro and Eduardo Bianco Orchestras and was a regular on radio stations Radio Belgrano and Radio El Mundo…one year before he passed away, at the age of seventy seven, he wrote his celebrated autobiography, “El Tango Que Yo Vivi, 60 Anos De Tango”